What Are The Bulls Options In Tonight's NBA Draft?
By Benjy Lipsman in News on Jun 26, 2014 4:30PM
The NBA Draft takes place tonight, and this year the Bulls have two picks. The Bulls have their own pick at 19, as well as the 16th pick coming from Charlotte as part of the 2010 Tyrus Thomas trade.
There are a number of scenarios that could play out as the Bulls try to address their weakness shooting the ball and try to position themselves to land Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Love, or even LeBron James. (That will never happen.) Additionally, the Bulls are hoping to finally bring power forward Nikola Mirotic over from Spain. All that roster uncertainty means the last thing we expect is for the Bulls to be adding two rookies to the roster as the team would rather have salary cap space than youth to develop.
One option has the Bulls packaging their pair of picks to move up in the draft. A number of top shooting guards are expected to go in the back half of the draft, including Creighton small forward Doug McDermott, Duke's Rodney Hood, and a pair of shooting guard from the Big Ten—Gary Harris from Michigan St. and Michigan's Nik Stauskas. A team with a number of holes to address might be willing to take the Bulls' two picks and let them grab a shooter who can help next season. If the Bulls draft in one of their current spots, players like UCLA's Zach LaVine, Clemson's K.J. McDaniels or Syracuse point guard Tyler Ennis might be on the Bulls' radar.
Should the Bulls make and keep selections with both picks, we expect that at least one will be a foreign player who they will keep playing overseas for the time being. Dario Saric has already stated he intends to stay in Europe and has seen his stock drop as a result. Does he fall to the Bulls in the mid to late teens? The odds of two keepers is virtually zero. With nine (nine!) teams lacking first round picks this year the Bulls might have success looking to swap picks in this draft for ones in the future.
The Bulls' picks could also be packaged along with other players as the team continues to express interest in landing Kevin Love from Minnesota. The Timberwolves forward/center wants out and the team has been actively shopping him. Rumors earlier this spring had the Bulls offering Carlos Boozer and Jimmy Butler along with the picks. Earlier this week, it looked like Love was headed to Golden State, but after that deal broke down the Bulls were rumored to have offered Taj Gibson, Tony Snell and the two draft picks.
We have no idea how tonight plays out for the Bulls, so we're intrigued to see what Gar Foreman and John Paxson have up their sleeves. We'll report back tomorrow on the Bulls' moves.